ranzware
It can be hard to keep count of all of the online subscription fees I’m paying these days; a few quid here or there for films, music, and my terrible, no good Final Fantasy XIV: Online habit that I just won’t quit. For the low, low price of a couple of bob a month, I get to live the dream of being a magical cat girl adventuring across Eorzea and beyond—which continues to make it worth my while. Unfortunately, YouTube now wants to add to the tidal wave of subscriptions by offering a cheaper Premium tier with fewer features.
For a long time I’ve resisted taking the plunge into yet another subscription with YouTube Premium for $13.99 a month, enduring 30-second ads (or even longer) when I lazily open the app on one of my consoles. Well, now there’s a lower price point to tempt me, with a pilot YouTube Premium Lite tier rolling out across the US for $7.99 a month.
Naturally, you’re getting less for, well, less. Just for a start, this Lite tier only offers “most videos ad-free,” whereas the more expensive Premium tier offers the unqualified “ad-free” perk. Premium Lite subscribers will still get videos on “gaming, fashion, beauty, [and] news” ad-free, but they’ll lose out on YouTube Music and the background play feature. That said, if you’re already flinging money, say, Spotify’s way, that may be a moot point for you.
YouTube recently announced that YouTube Music and Premium combined have 125 million subscribers across the world—so at the very least I know it’s not just me who finds those lengthy ads deeply annoying. While the cheaper Premium Lite tier is new to the US, it’s already available in a similar pilot scheme capacity in Australia, Germany, and Thailand.
Given that ads made YouTube $10.4 billion in the last three months of 2024 alone, doubling down on subscriptions is hardly unsurprising. Add to that YouTube’s enduring popularity, with viewers apparently streaming 1 billion hours of content to their TVs on the daily, and it seems my only recourse is to not so quietly grumble about the platform’s life-force draining ad spots. I’m just thankful that ads playing when you press pause seemingly didn’t stick around.
YouTube claims that the Premium Lite tier will “create additional revenue opportunities for our creators and partners,” though I can’t help but feel a little sceptical. To be clear, I’ve no doubt YouTube and its ad partners will rake it in. However, I fear many creators will enjoy little benefit, if any—seeing the pennies similar ad-free subscription services like Spotify throw to even successful creators isn’t exactly filling me with hope.
In a recent episode of Release Notes, Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich explained the intention is not to frequently tack on tiers but to keep the overall subscription service “somewhat simple.” Still, if YouTube Premium introduces a tier that excises AI-generated content—and kicks those reply suggestions to the curb—then perhaps I’ll yet become a loyal subscriber.
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Kurt Indovina
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